The Claiming

by Glenn Williams

  The aura of power flowing off of her was palpable.

  “Hello Kendra,” Emily said gently. She sounded almost sad. “I wish this could have ended in some other way.”

  “Are you a demon?” I asked, attempting to move. I realized that my body — except for my head, it seemed — was just as frozen in place as Rory and Gwydion.

  “Not quite,” Emily said, a faint note of amusement entering her voice. Her accent fell away and her voice seemed suddenly different, almost musical. And yet there was something else behind it, something ancient and alien, just below the surface. It was as though she was speaking two languages at once.

  “You left me,” I said. My voice still sounded faint and faraway, but a note of accusation entered it.

  “I had to,” She said. “I couldn't interfere any longer. You had to face this last, most important, test on your own.”

  “What did you do to us?” I asked.

  “I froze time,” She replied, almost casually. As though it was nothing to her. “And just at the last moment, it seems. You were very nearly gone.”

  “You froze time — everywhere?” I asked, thinking of the rapidly approaching dawn. Our time would be up any second, if it wasn't already.

  “Everywhere,” She confirmed, studying my face. “There's moments left, it is true, but I'm sure you'll agree that a single moment can change everything.”

  “I was dying,” I said, remembering. Strangely, I didn't feel any fear.

  “You still are, I'm afraid,” Emily replied. “Just much more slowly than before. But you don't need to.”

  I tried to process that. I was silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say, to wrap my head around what was happening.

  “You're not really Emily Rode, are you?”

  Emily smiled at me, but the light half of her face appeared strangely sad. The dark side of her face was utterly inscrutable. She reached out and stroked my cheek. Her touch was gentle, but I fought the urge to jerk away. Her fingertips were practically crackling with power.

  “Not entirely,” She agreed. “And not really. The true Emily Rode moved on from this place long ago. I thought it would be easier to meet you in this form. For everyone involved.”

  “You're her,” I breathed. “You're the Queen of Elfame. Are you some kind of Goddess”

  Emily smiled as though amused again, but she waved the question away, “Let's return to the situation at hand. You came here to free your brother, but to do so, you had to die in the process. When you realized this was the price, you laid down your life without a moment's hesitation.”

  “It wasn't like that,” I said. “I just couldn't —”

  “You couldn't let him die,” Emily said, finishing for me. “Or, well, I already explained what the stakes really were, I suppose. You couldn't let him be destroyed. Not when it was within your power to prevent it.”

  It was true, but I didn't like the way she said it. Again, I wasn't sure how to respond.

  “Yes,” I said at last, too exhausted to argue with her. “I couldn't let something like that happen to him.”

  “That was the test. The only one that really mattered. You see, this wasn't really ever your brother's trial at all,” Emily said, still smiling at me. There was so much warmth and love in her expression that I couldn't help it, despite everything, I smiled back at her. “It was your trial, Kendra Garrity. And you have passed it.”

  “I don't want to be a witch,” I said, my brow furrowing. “I didn't want a trial.”

  “I am afraid you did not have a choice. I have seen you coming for a very long time. Your silly warlock thought that he could upset the balance of nature with his own life. He was foolish, but when I saw that it would lead you here, I consented to his plea. I have set many other wheels in motion to bring you here.”

  “I don't understand,” I said weakly. “Why would you do that?”

  “You are a special sort of person, Kendra Garrity. You passed every single one of my tests. You overcame everything that would have shattered a lesser person. And you came here seeking redemption for someone else, rather than power.” She added, “Long ago, there was a tribe that discovered they could cross into this world. They did so to save their loved ones, to ensure that they were able to cross into the next world, to help them to find peace. That tribe became the first of the witches.”

  “I didn't ask for power,” I said again. The weakness was returning. The edges of my vision were turning gray again.

  “And yet, you have earned power, and power you must have. There is a darkness rising in Hollow Hill. More dangerous than you can imagine.”

  “After this, I think I can imagine a lot.”

  “You have already seen what it is capable of, when unleashed.”

  I felt confused for a split second. Then I remembered the billowing black smoke I had seen earlier. The people running in blind panic. None of them had survived. Blood smeared on the door. The thing that had destroyed the town.

  Emily nodded, studying my face. “Your power will be much needed, I think,” Emily said softly. “It is not often that I claim someone as my own. As you know, it is always the other way around. You will be quite a bit more powerful than the average witch.”

  “What if I say no?”

  “Then you will perish, here and now. Ultimately, the coven will fall against a great darkness, and Hollow Hill — and the world at large — will be left to fend for itself. And I will take the warlock up on his silly bargain. After all, I have held up my end.”

  “But you'll let him live, if I agree?”

  “Yes,” She said flatly. “You will both live.”

  “And what will happen to Gwydion? What will become of my brother?”

  She hesitated and her face seemed to darken, “I do not know,” She said at last. “Your brother was found wanting in his trial. When you rescued him, you did something that has never been done before. You upset the order of what should have been.”

  Silence stretched between us. She didn't say it as an accusation, merely a statement of fact.

  “I will release him from this place,” She said finally. She spoke slowly, a frown creasing her brow. “And he will likely return as a witch, of a sort. But I cannot promise that he will be as he was before he came here. The ghost roads can change one in unexpected ways, ways that even I cannot predict. I'm afraid that I do not know what will become of your brother.”

  I took a moment to process that. A part of me wished she had lied to me and said that everything would be fine if I just signed on the dotted line. But I understood, on some deep level that I couldn't explain, that she could not lie to me. Not about this. In order for me to accept her bargain, I had to know what I was agreeing to.

  And if it had been just my life at stake, I'm not sure what I would have said. But it wasn't just me. It was Rory and my brother. Emily was placing their lives in my hands, along with my own. Emily and I both knew what I would say, long before I said it.

  The room swam around me. And I felt something seize up in my body. It seemed far away, but I knew that I was seconds away from slipping back into the darkness, frozen time or not.

  Finally, I nodded.

  “I accept.”

  She nodded once. She wasn't surprised. Of course she wasn't. A wave of warmth enveloped me, threatening to drag me back into the darkness. My body, of it's own accord, let out a small sigh. The room began dissolving slowly into gray dots.

  My eyes closed.

  “Your heart has been destroyed,” I heard her say, before everything went dark. “I will need to remove it and fashion you a new one. As it is your heart, more than anything else, that has led you to this very moment in time, I find it fitting that your heart is what should become changed.”

  I wanted to protest, but the time for that had passed. I felt nothing. I was surrounded by an ocean of darkness. I had only a moment to feel fear, to wonder if perhaps it was too late after all.

&nbs
p; Then the darkness overtook me completely.

  I surrendered to it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The ground was cold and hard under me. A shaft of sun fell across my eyes, momentarily blinding me. I sat up, blinking.

  I took a deep breath, savoring the sweetness of the air filling my lungs. Of being alive.

  Then I frowned. Something wasn’t right. My body felt strange. I paused, trying to identify the difference.

  It was like the air around me and the ground beneath me were practically buzzing. The strange sensation was all over my body as well. I felt it on every inch of my skin. The buzzing intensified as I focused on it. I tried to brush it away, batting it off of my arms with the palms of my hands, but that didn't help. The buzzing continued.

  “You’ll get used to it,” Someone said nearby.

  I swiveled my head around and fixed my gaze on the person who had spoken. It was the younger witch from the diner, the one who had come after us. The one who had scared me so badly before.

  I shuddered at the sight of her.

  “I was trying to protect you,” She snapped. “And think quieter, please.”

  In the softness of the dawn light, she didn't look like a murderous witch anymore. She looked like an ordinary girl. Granted, a very lovely girl, with straight blond hair, clear green eyes, cheekbones that could cut glass, and full lips that were coated in a bubblegum pink shade of lipstick. Her eyebrows, dark slashes against unblemished cream-colored skin, were pulled together in worry. As I looked, I thought I saw traces of Emily in her facial features. A descendant, perhaps?

  “You’re louder now,” The girl said slowly, staring at me, “What the hell happened to you down there?”

  “Is she a demon?” One of the other coven members asked, calling across the clearing. The way he said it, he could have been asking for the time.

  I turned to look at who had spoken.

  It was a younger man with short-cropped bleach blond hair that had been spiked with gel. He looked like he should have been at the beach, working on his tan, perhaps with a surf-board standing up in the sand next to him. He didn't look like he should be huddled in a clearing in the woods, surrounded by witches.

  With a start, I realized that there were a number of people assembled around the circle. Several of them looked like they were just waking up. They were pushing themselves upright and yawning. Had they slept here?

  “Shut up, Thomas,” The blond witch snapped. She added, “She's not a demon.”

  “Kathryn, can you be sure?” A woman dark-haired woman asked sharply, coming to stand next to the blond witch. She was lithe and statuesque and her eyes were almost as black as Niram's had been. Her severe features were hard with worry. There was a strange glint in her eyes. “Are you absolutely certain?”

  “Feel free to dump your potion on her, Deborah. You're just going to get her wet,” The blond witch said. The look she gave me was…strange. As though she didn’t quite know what to make of me.

  Beside me, Rory gasped and sat up.

  “And...you owe me twenty dollars,” Thomas said to one of the other coven members, a well-built dark-haired man who was dressed like a police officer. With a start, I recognized him as the Sheriff’s deputy, Dave Tanner. I saw him almost every day. I'd even considered us to be friends, or at least, friendly.

  “Tanner?” I whispered, my mouth falling open with shock.

  How can he be a witch? I wondered dumbly, staring at him.

  The buzzing sensation intensified and for a split second, I felt him. The feeling was hard to describe, but it was like a blurring of my own senses. For an instant, it was as though I was no longer me anymore, but something other. And then I sensed his emotions, pouring into me as though they were my own: a strange mixture of anger, regret, and most of all, excitement. And there was something else there, something softer and almost raw...

  A wall slammed down between us, cutting me off from him.

  I blinked, suddenly snapped out of the trance that had descended without warning. Had I actually sensed him somehow? It felt like I had.

  I realized that Tanner was staring back at me, studying me with a wary expression on his face.

  He sensed it too, I realized. Whatever I had just done, he’d felt me do it.

  I looked away, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. My gaze landed on Rory.

  He took a moment to catch his bearings. He kept his gaze trained away from the edge of the circle, where the coven was assembled. He stared at my brother’s motionless body for a long moment, then looked over at me. Somehow, by the way he did it — as though forcing himself to look at something horrible — I knew that he was reluctant to look at me. He didn't want to see me lying there, still and silent, knowing it was his fault. Knowing that he had lost everything.

  His anguished gaze met mine and his eyes widened until his expression was almost comical. His jaw dropped open.

  “Kendra,” He breathed. “How—?”

  I gave him a faint smile, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t feel ready to talk about it yet. And, if I was being honest, the last few minutes of my visit to the underworld were fuzzy, which was probably for the best. I could sense something different about the heart beating in my chest, but I couldn't put my finger on what the difference was. It didn't quite feel like my heart. Not yet.

  The Queen of Elfame had replaced it in order to save my life.

  “Holy shit,” Kathryn said, her perfectly pink lip-glossed mouth falling open. “She's a witch now.”

  “That's not possible,” Deborah said sharply.

  “It's true,” Tanner said from across the clearing. He sounded angry.

  I looked away from Rory to survey the coven, still not quite trusting myself to speak. They were exchanging thunderstruck looks with each other. Thomas was whispering something furiously at Tanner, who was glaring stonily at Rory. Another man, standing away from the coven, was watching what was taking place with his arms crossed, a dark look on his face. Deborah was staring at me like I'd sprouted another head. A dark-skinned woman who hadn't spoken yet was watching me with curious look on her face.

  At last, Gwydion sat up. My brother, always one to capitalize on dramatic timing.

  “Oh thank God,” Rory said, throwing his arms around Gwydion. “I thought we'd lost you.”

  Gwydion returned his hug, but his eyes met mine over Rory's shoulder. If he was surprised by my presence, he didn't show it.

  “We should kill him,” Thomas said to no one in particular, leveling a murderous look in Rory's direction. Several of the coven members turned to look at him. Thomas added, more loudly, “He’s a traitor!”

  “Shut up Thomas,” Kathryn said, “We don't kill people. Though I might someday make an exception for you.”

  “Kathryn, Thomas is right. He betrayed us. He told a cowan our secrets,” The brooding man stepped forward, pointing a finger at me.

  “Are you deaf, or just deeply challenged?” Kathryn asked, crossing her arms and glaring at him. “She's not a cowan anymore.”

  I barely had time to wonder what a cowan was, before Kathryn added, looking right at me, “Non-witch. Basically it's our word for muggle.”

  “No one's killing anyone,” Deborah said slowly, “But a crime has been committed against us,” She looked at Rory as she spoke. “You have trespassed against us, Rory. You disobeyed us and you betrayed our trust. Worse, you put the life of this innocent at risk. And for what?”

  “For me,” Gwydion said, pulling free from Rory and standing. “He did it for me.”

  Deborah looked sharply at Kathryn, “Is he—?” She asked suddenly, then hesitating, “Is he intact?”

  “Well, he's not a virgin,” Kathryn said waspishly, “But he's not a demon either.”

  I stood as well. If my brother was going to face these people, he wasn’t going to do it alone.

  “Look,” I said, finally speaking. My voice sounded thick and unused. �
��We did what we had to, because you refused to try to actually help. You're going to let us go.”

  “Are we sure she's not a demon?” Thomas stage-whispered to Dave. I turned to glare at him.

  Deborah ignored me for a moment. She addressed the others.

  “The Water of Lethe. For all of them,” She said, calling out across the clearing. Then to Rory, her tone softened dangerously. She added, “I warned you.”

  Her cold eyes slid to me.

  “No,” I breathed, feeling a mixture of rage and horror. The Waters of Lethe. She was going to make us, all of us, forget what had just happened.

  Rory and Gwydion would forget each other. Gwydion would lose Rory and Rory would lose everything.

  And I would forget what had happened, what I had become. What I had done for my brother.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kathryn giving her a sharp look. But she didn't say anything in our defense. No one did, not even Tanner.

  “Don’t fight it,” Deborah said, staring directly at me. “You will take the waters of Lethe.”

  I met Deborah's gaze. Immediately, I felt something rolling off of her. A power I hadn't sensed a moment before.

  The sensation of it should have made me wary, but it didn't.

  Because something was happening to me as well. The buzzing around me became a crackle as my anger rose. The sensation set my teeth on edge. My anger broke free.

  Something built up around us, a sudden whipping wind that blew my hair back and sent dirt and leaves flying. The static kept building and then —

  Crack!

  A bolt of lightening fell from the sky, hitting the ground less than five feet from where Deborah was standing. The light was sudden and blinding and I could hear the hissing and pop of the electricity discharging as the lightening met the ground.